A novel one-step mechanically strengthened hyaluronic acid hydrogel assisted by a small molecular agent

Traditional hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogels are limited by many bottlenecks such as lack of the mechanical strength. In this work, we surprisingly found that with the assistance of small molecule agents (e.g., bis-acrylamide, BIS), the mechanical property of HA hydrogels could be modulated. The HA-BIS hydrogels resulted in stronger mechanical properties increasing from 5.3 kPa (HA hydrogels) to 14.5 kPa (HA-B10 hydrogels). Furthermore, the HA-BIS hydrogels exhibited extraordinary high light transmittance (nearly 100%). The introduction of small molecular agents is advantageous to enhance the mechanical properties of natural hydrogels and pave a new way for wider applications.